Getting more video content on your social media pages is a sure-fire way to increase engagement with your brand’s posts. Now social media marketers have access to a great selection of video editing apps and content creation tools that are making the process of creating compelling video content even easier.
Our recommended video editing apps for social media:
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Canva
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Adobe Premiere Rush
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iMovie
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Splice
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Quik
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video
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Promo
At the centre of every successful social media strategy is a diverse content calendar. Visual content – such as image and video – is at the heart of most big social media platforms; 19% of marketers say they couldn’t live without visual content, 49% rate it as Very Important, and 22% as Important.
Video is an ideal format for visual content and can be something of an asset for dramatically improving big metrics such as click-throughs and conversion rates. In the 2018 HubSpot survey, 54% of consumers said they wanted to see more video content from brands and businesses they support.
Not only is video the perfect addition to help diversify your posting schedule, but it can also be particularly beneficial to achieving social media marketing goals. We hope to help make creating video content easier by introducing you to our favourite video editing apps for social media content.
Why Video Content Works
Social media users desire great variety in the content mix they see on social networking platforms. A video is a form of content that promises variety from click to click. For users, it requires less investment than text-heavy posts and offers more promise than image-based posts. However, as a result, it requires a larger investment on the marketer’s behalf. Good video editing apps make all the difference here.
Diversifying your social media content to include video isn’t always easy. Despite the importance of visual marketing, actually creating the content can be a big challenge, with 23.7% of marketers saying they struggle with visual content design and creation. If that sounds like you, don’t worry – these video editing apps will help you improve your social media content.
Video Editing Apps for Better Social Media Content
Canva
Price: Free | Pro £8.99/month | Enterprise £24/month
Canva is a free web-based design tool that we consider to be one of the best alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, but did you know that Canva is also a brilliant solution to creating social media videos? Whether you’re creating animated graphics or using real footage – for which they also host a great stock footage library – Canva will help you achieve your video content goals. Using its friendly user interface and wide selection of features, you can create high-quality social media videos without the high price of professional video editing software.
One selling point for making Canva your go-to for social media video creation is that you’re able to create all kinds of content, not just video. With hundreds of templates to choose from – including handy pre-sized canvases for each social platforms – you can create all of your social media content in one place. Unless you want to create complicated, effect-heavy videos for social media, we highly recommend Canva as your new video editing app.
Adobe Premiere Rush
Price: Free Starter version | Starts at £9.98/month for an individual plan or £20.22/month for a business plan | Free with an Adobe CC subscription or Premiere Pro subscription
Adobe Premiere Rush is a cross-device video editing app that allows you to access your ongoing edits across your phone, tablet, and computer. Premiere Rush is a simplified version of Premiere Pro editing capabilities, focused on creating social media content. Don’t be intimidated, either – Premiere Rush is surprisingly intuitive and easy to use, even for those not familiar with the more intense Adobe apps.
The free version of Premiere Rush is unfortunately limited to 3 exports and 2GB of cloud storage; it is more intended to be a trial or test version of the app.
iMovie (for Apple devices)
Price: Free for Apple devices
For those after basic video editing software, iMovie comes preloaded for free on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. It allows you to easily splice together different clips, add titles, and sounds. If you’re less design or technically minded, there are several templates to use as a starting point. Although it is by no means a complex editor, its basic functionality is more than enough to create some interesting social media content.
Of course, the downside here is that it’s not available for non-Apple phones, tablets, and computers. Still, iMovie is a great option for those with access to Apple devices for their social media marketing efforts.
Splice
Price: Free + in-app purchases
Splice, the video editing app originally developed by GoPro and now owned by Bending Spoons, is a personal favourite of ours. It harnesses an uncluttered workspace to allow simple and effective video editing. Alongside benefitting from the ability to use it on the go, users get access to a library of high-quality free audio backing tracks and sound effects. It allows you to edit and splice together a variety of clips, add rudimentary filters and text overlays. The one downside is not being able to alter audio levels throughout a clip, but being able to export at 1080p for free gets a huge thumbs up from us.
Quik
Price: Free download + trial, Premium option $49.99/year
Another video editing app developed by GoPro, Quik is another app that embraces simple yet powerful features. There are plenty of useful tools, such as trimming, colour correction, cropping, filters, and more. One of our favourite features of the app is the ability to automatically sync edits/cuts to the chosen music/audio track. You don’t need a GoPro camera to use Quik but having one will add an extra layer to the app experience. Quik allows you to use your phone as a GoPro remote control and import your footage wirelessly from the GoPro – perfect for getting product shots while out and about.
Wave.video
Price: Free basic plan | Creator USD$468/year | Business USD$948/year
With Wave.video, you can easily create and edit video content for your social media, blog, or website. Featuring stock footage, images, and audio, Wave Video allows you to boost your social media posts with stylish, high-quality video content. Wave is a brilliant comprehensive video creation site for beginner and intermediate video content creators, and will no doubt brighten up your social media feeds.
We highly recommend one of the tiered pricing plans as opposed to the free basic plan, giving you the option to download in mp4 format, access stock video clips and images, and remove the Wave.video branding from your video player.
Promo
Price: Free trial | Basic £39/month or Annual Basic £216/year | Standard £79/month or Annual Standard £365/year | Pro £279/month or Annual Pro £1332/year
Promo is a video editing app that primarily aims towards creating promotional video content and social media paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Including stunning templates organised by video type and industry/sector, Promo allows businesses to create professional promotional and marketing videos for their social media, advertising, and website channels. The tiered price plans allow you varying levels of access to features, such as export limitations and watermarking.
All-in-all, whichever video editing app you choose to use, video content creation is an important part of a diverse social media content plan. Videos have been doing incredibly well in terms of engagement and reach over the last few years, including in paid social media advertising campaigns as well. If you’re struggling with creating video content even with these excellent apps available, get in touch to see how we can help you with your video marketing.
Editor’s note: This article was published in 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and relevance in May 2021.
